1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to single serve beverage brewers, and is concerned in particular with the provision of a novel and improved brew chamber for such brewers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In known brew chambers for single serve beverage brewers, such as those disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,325,765; 6,079,315; 6,142,063; and 6,606,938, a disposable beverage filter cartridge is pierced by inlet and outlet probes to accommodate a through flow of metered hot water. The hot water infuses a dry beverage medium contained in the cartridge to thereby produce a single serving of the beverage.
The brew chambers are opened and closed by automatically operable mechanisms that have proven to be reliable, although relatively complex and expensive.
Other beverage brewers of the type disclosed for example in WO 02/43541 A1 have brew chambers that are opened and closed manually, but these also employ unduly complicated operating mechanisms.
Moreover, the prior art brew chambers, be they automatically or manually operated, suffer from an added disadvantage in that their cartridge or pod receptacles remain vertical and thus inconveniently oriented when the chambers are opened.
There exists a need, therefore, for an improved beverage chamber that has a relatively simple and inexpensive operating mechanism, with the capability, when opened, of presenting the cartridge receptacle in a forwardly inclined position, thus enhancing its accessibility during both insertion of fresh cartridges and retrieval of spent cartridges.